


Catacomb Daze

by calamari_from_beyond



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M, feat. protective avocato, rated T for drinking and stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 22:04:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calamari_from_beyond/pseuds/calamari_from_beyond
Summary: Sometimes, it takes a drink or two to loosen up. And what Gary doesn't know won't hurt him.





	Catacomb Daze

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after Gary gets the prosthetic arm and before Quinn joins.

 

_"The Galaxy One is approaching the Gandromic district shortly.”_

To Gary’s amusement, Avocato’s ears twitched at H.U.E.’s reverberating announcement. Up until now, he had kept to silently polishing his armored shoulder-pads in the corner booth, rag-in-hand, occasionally staring at his reflection in a pensive state.

Gary would love to spare a penny for the guy’s thoughts, but in that, he acknowledged to himself that Avocato was not one for sharing details of his life prior to working for the Lord Commander. That did little to prevent Gary from wondering though; _what was his full name? Where did he come from? Did he have a mother-in-law? What was his blood type?_

All questions for another day, perhaps.

Avocato’s posture straightened as he leaned forward, focus completely shifted away from his run-of-the-mill task.

“The Gandromic district?” he repeated, for clarification’s sake.

 _“Yes, that is correct,”_ H.U.E. confirmed.

This new development- one of Avocato actually showing enthusiasm towards something that wasn’t lethal weapon-related- was enough to pique Gary’s interest.

“What? What’s so special about the Gardominic district?” he asked.

Avocato sunk back into the booth, seemingly becoming disinterested again. He had something on the tip of his probably-sandpaper tongue ( _was that the kind of thing Gary could ask about without receiving a venomous glare in response?_ ) but swallowed his words.

“It’s… no, nevermind,” he insisted, looking withdrawn. “It’s nothing.”

With a sly expression to boot, Gary slid in next to Avocato, pushing him smack against the wall’s sleek metal plating (and clearly invading his personal space). The action earned a low irritated growl in response.

“Well obviously it’s _not_ nothing, or as I like to call it, _something_. So, share your beef, bro,” Gary argued, simultaneously booping Avocato on the nose.

Avocato frowned his very specific ‘I don’t want to talk about it so stop asking me’ frown, as Gary coined it. “It really is nothing, Gary. We need to focus on the task at hand-”

“And we can do that!” Gary interrupted with a wave of his hand. “...Right after you tell me what the hell you’re thinking about.”

Before, he had looked prepared to continue avoiding it, but his hard-shelled demeanor faltered. Avocato took in a deep breath and sighed: a clear indication to Gary that he had been successful in breaking down his defenses.

“It’s. The Catacomb,” Avocato explained. He toyed with the edges of one of his shoulder pads, looking… something Gary couldn’t register having seen on him thus far. Sheepish, maybe? “A bar I used to frequent before-”

Curiously, Avocato caught himself. Again, Gary would have to probe him on his past some other time.

“...Er… before all of this,” he continued, gesturing to his surroundings. A tiny smile formed at the corners of his mouth. “It’s the only one this side of the cosmos. Just… brings back good memories, I guess.”

Gary concocted a disinterested facade as he leaned back in the booth, arms crossed.  

“I see. Welp, mystery solved now! I guess we can get back to tracking down your-- H.U.E.!”

With a sudden grab, he clasped a gloved hand over Avocato’s mouth, rendering anything he said unintelligible. He glanced up at the overhead speakers.

“How far away is The Catacomb from our current location?!” Gary shouted.

A beat of silence filled the area as H.U.E. began to recalibrate. Realizing what he was attempting to do, Avocato tried to wrestle out of Gary’s grip. His protests were still muffled, but damn, could he put up a fight.

 _“Searching… The Catacomb. 0.2 light years away. Why do you ask, Gary?”_ H.U.E. questioned.

“Oh...! Just… following a potential lead!” he lied. “You know, to where Avocato’s son is!”

_“That was a trick question, Gary. I totally heard what Avocato just said. I have an auditory processing chip, you know.”_

“...Oh.”

 _“But… I will allow for it, if it assists in improving stamina in both you and Avocato,”_ H.U.E. stated. _“Just as long as you two are back here in an hour or so.”_

Gary would have done a fist-pump in that moment, but unfortunately, his hands were still a bit preoccupied.

“Sweet!” he exclaimed. “Thanks a ton, H.U.E.!”

It was when Gary could hear the distinct _ssssshnnnk_ of Avocato’s claws being deployed that he knew to let go of him. Worming his way out of the booth, Gary was quick to pace down the ship’s hallway, away from the console room and towards the series of corridors.

“Gary!” Avocato groaned as he chased him down. He quickly matched his speed, rubbing his temples.

“We really shouldn’t… we… we don’t have to-!”

Both men stopped short of a closed-off corridor. Gary turned to face Avocato, looking as cheeky as ever.

“You’re right, my short-haired friend,” he admitted. “We don’t _have_ to. But your objections are useless as I, the captain of this ship, think we should anyways. Get some of that stress out of your system! Have a drink, hit on sweet babes…”

Gary, maintaining eye-contact with Avocato, entered the code to the boarding section of the ship. The door automatically opened to reveal KVN floating there, eager to get in on the conversation.

“ _Ooooh,_ sweet babes? Count me in-”

Completely unphased, Gary slammed his fist against the keypad, shutting the door in KVN’s face. He did a complete 180, walking back to the console room of the ship. Avocato paced after him, still appearing anxious.

“What… what about that girl you keep video-messaging?” he suggested. “Don’t you have a thing for her?”

Gary glanced at him. “Let me rephrase that. _You_ have a drink and hit on sweet babes, stud!” he exclaimed with a light punch to Avocato’s arm. “I’m off the market. You, on the other hand…”

Trailing off, Gary’s stride grinded to a halt (as well as Avocato’s). This whole time he had assumed his friend wasn’t in a relationship of any sort, given that he had never brought it up, but then again, Avocato never really brings up anything unprompted.

And Gary had been implying it would be good for him to go hook up with some bar ladies. _Oof_. Weird position.

How had this never been brought up before…?

“Uh… you are single, aren’t you?” Gary asked. “Well, then again… Little Cato had to have come from somewhere, right…?”

He trailed off, expectantly waiting for Avocato to finish the thought.

He hesitated for a split second, as if internally debating whether or not one personal tidbit of information about his past was too much. “My partner is dead and has been for a while now,” he answered.

Taken aback with how blunt he was, Gary awkwardly rubbed his arm and looked off in the distance.

“O-oh. That’s… rough, man. Sorry for your loss.”

Avocato, without much rhyme or reason, drew closer to the ship’s array of windows, seemingly fixated on something somewhere else. Gary strained to see what he was looking at but saw nothing but the continuous black void of space.

“It’s… alright,” Avocato replied, completely still. “It happens.”

Worried that he bad caused the sudden shift in his friend, Gary bit his lip and reached out to him, but ended up hesitating. Had he said something wrong? Maybe he should have worded the question differently...

“...It’s even more incentive to stay on Little Cato’s track,” Avocato murmured, eyes locked on the window’s reflection. He pounded against glass. “He’s out there, taken hostage, and I’m the only one he has left!”

With a fist pressed firmly on the window and his face scrunched up into a snarl, it was clear that Avocato was on the verge of a breakdown.

It was then when Gary intervened with a hand on clasped his shoulder. Avocato flinched at the gesture, but it didn’t seem to be perceived as an unwanted one.

“You’re not going to be thrown off of the mission,” Gary said softly. There was a twinge of sincerity laced in his tone; a certain gentleness of underlying compassion for the situation. For Avocato. He had to approach it delicately, this time around.

“You heard what H.U.E. said! It’ll only be an hour, tops,” he continued, with a slight playful shake to Avocato’s shoulder. “Just something to ease your nerves in the middle of like, total extraterrestrial warfare.”

Avocato finally broke away from his trance, meeting Gary’s gaze but remaining silent in response.

“Please?” Gary pleaded, lower lip pouting. “If you’re not gonna do it for yourself, at least do it for your captain…?”

Closing his eyes, he took a step back and faced towards Gary, head hung. Yet again, his defenses had crumbled.

“...Okay,” he confirmed, slowly shaking his head. “I’ll go.”

“Yes!” Gary exclaimed. He immediately held out his fist. Something similar to regret flashed across Avocato’s features as he stared down Gary with unease.

Gary nudged his hand. “Can I get one of these? C’mon. You know you want to!”

Avocato rolled his eyes before complying to the request in a half-hearted fist-bump.

“You’re dumb sometimes, you know that?” he remarked with a slight smirk.

“It’s part of my boyish charm. Now, let the Gary-Avocato Bar Adventure commence!”

 

* * *

 

 

“This is not how I pictured the Gary-Avocato Bar Adventure would look like,” Gary stated dryly.

The two had gone through the front entrance side-by-side to be greeted immediately with the tantalizing aroma of freshly-mixed alcohol with an additional stench of… fish?

The bar’s decor felt vaguely terrestrial in nature. But, strangely enough, it was unlike any bar across the galaxy Gary had ever visited.

Red and orange lights emitted naturally from some alien-looking poinsettias, strung from the ceiling like lamps. A series of thinner pillars made up a circle around a larger, more worn pillar.

With some squinting, Gary could see the actual “bar” part of the bar was on the outside perimeter of the circle while the inside was the dancefloor. Potted plants sprouted from the bottom of each pillar and weaved their way up.

The music was decently loud, but much more akin to folk music than the regular pop tracks Gary was used to hearing at these sorts of joints.

Both men were wearing casual attire (both sporting their regular outfits), but Avocato seemed to blend in better with the rest of the bar’s patrons. A lot better, actually. Gary scanned the place out from left to right five times before realizing that, unless there were some other species hiding in the bathroom or something, the entire population of the Catacomb seemed to be entirely Ventrexian. More specifically, _male_ Ventrexian.

“...Huh. Diverse crowd. Am I right or am I-” Gary attempted to elbow his friend but found himself making contact with nothing.

“...Right?”

He spun around. Avocato was no longer standing anywhere near him.

How did he lose him this quickly? They had just walked through the doors a mere minute ago!

Near the center pillar of the club, he spotted Avocato already chatting up a scrawny brown-haired Ventrexian with his fur slicked back (chatting him up rather eagerly, Gary might add). The other man pointed at Avocado’s arm in question, to which Avocato laughed playfully and began to flex for him.

Gary wasn’t a lip-reader but as far as he could tell, Avocato was truly enjoying himself. Presumably for the first time in a long time.

“Pft. Look at him, making friends as quick as ever. Light on his feet, that Avocato,” Gary thought, a grin overtaking his expression.

The joy of seeing his friend have a nice time quickly withered away as a hyper-awareness of the situation dominated his brain. Here he was, standing rather awkwardly by himself, not even attempting to engage with other people or to try and bust a move or two on the dancefloor.

He felt exposed, alone in a foreign bar on an unfamiliar planet.

Following a couple nervous side-glances and daydreaming multiple methods of escape simultaneously, Gary mulled over it a second more and proceeded to snap himself out of it.

_No, just-- focus._

Now was really not the time to dwell on the predicament when the solution was literally in front of his face- he was _surrounded_ by people! Potential budding friendships, just waiting to be made! Rather than moping, he should be taking advantage of the situation. Follow Avocato’s lead a little.

After being isolated on a prison ship for five years straight, it couldn’t hurt to socialize a little, right? And if he ends up annoying a regular or two, it’s not like they were ever coming back to the bar.

What was the worst that could happen?

Gary backtracked and observed his surroundings once more: his scope being the entire outer-circle. What he was looking for, exactly, he didn’t know. Maybe a friendly face? Some guy who looked like he could use a friend?

He laid eyes on a younger-looking Ventrexian, phone in one hand and cocktail in the other. He was built sort of similarly to Avocato (and had black and white fur just like him, too) and wore a bright blue jersey with the name of a sports team in an alien tongue printed to the back. The patron sat alone and appeared to be bored… the perfect specimen for friend-making!

“Aha!” he said to himself.

He maneuvered his way through the dancing crowds and towards his target, dodging any stray hand or hip that came his way.

The targeted man took a swig of his drink. He did not look up from his phone as Gary approached him.

“Hello there, patron!” Gary greeted, extending his hand. “Gary Goodspeed, un-official official captain of the Galaxy One, at your acquaintance!”

This was enough to garner his attention. The Ventrexian’s eyes flicked back and forth from his face to his extended hand as his expression soured into a sneer.

“Captain, huh? Not really my type, if I’m being honest,” he confessed before taking another sip of his weird alien cocktail. He checked the time on his phone once again.

In an attempt to shrug it off, Gary babbled forward. He rested his elbows against the smooth marble bar table, head in hands, but electing to continue standing rather than sit next to the guy.

“Oh! Well, does ship prisoner sound better?” he asked. “Cause I would totally fall under that category, also.”

The patron raised an eyebrow to this and appeared to be gearing himself up to reply when another male Ventrexian entered the scene, effectively catching his eye. Gary’s would-be buddy slid off of his stool, gathering his belongings and shoving them into his jeans pocket.

“There you are!” he called out with a wave. “Ugh. That was the longest damn bathroom break you’ve ever taken. Let’s get outta here already.”

The potential-possibly friend walked away with the other guy, hands clasped together as they vanished into the crowd.

Gary took the blow surprisingly well. The man didn’t seem to click with him anyways. What’s one failure in a long string of possibilities?

Preparing to scope out his next proto-friend, he detected a stronger closeness among the patrons, this time around. He hadn’t noticed the general flare, the electricity in the air before.

Raking over the dancing crowd, he took note of several pairing-offs, several couples holding hands and several outwardly appearing flirtatious conversations.

“Heh, it’s almost as if…”

Then, it happened.

Gary’s eyes locked on Avocato’s form once more, away from all the action on the dancefloor. He was still engaged with the guy from before, but… well… in a quite different meaning of the word.

Avocato was in the middle of _kissing_ him, hands entangled in the other Ventrexian’s fur.

For whatever reason, this made Gary feel… woozy. The bad, aching kind of woozy. So overwhelmingly woozy he couldn’t bare to stand any more, and practically collapsed on the nearest bar stool.

Metal hand raking through his hair, Gary tried to regain his composure.

Not the first time in his life, Gary felt really, really stupid. And embarrassed.

This whole predicament was solely his own fault as he was the one to push Avocato to go out in the first place, not really giving him a chance to elaborate on anything.

He had never once pegged Avocato as gay. Or bisexual. Or… a man who loved men in any capacity. Really. For some reason, he had just assumed just because he had a kid...

A gruff voice interrupted his deep thinking: “What can I get ya?”

Startled out of his contemplation, his head swerved around only to find himself being talked at by the bartender: a burly, shorthaired Ventrexian. He sported an apron that appeared to be seldom washed, as it was covered in a combination of grease and wine stains.

Gary blinked before staring down the menu laid out before him, completely puzzled. “I… I don’t know. I haven’t even ever heard of half of these drinks! Look- look at this,” he replied, picking up the menu and pointing at it.

“What the crap is ‘Xorm’? Sounds more like a nasal cream than a delicious alcoholic beverage!”

The bartender was unphased.

“Do you wanna try it?” he proposed with an eyebrow raised.

With a sigh, Gary put down the menu. “Oh, hell...why not.”

“Want a complimentary side-head with that?” The bartender reached under the table, retrieving a fish with three eyes with one hand and a butcher knife with the other.

The mutant fish squirmed against the bartender’s firm grip and was held in place directly below the knife, staring straight into Gary’s soul as its’ life was about to be viciously pried away from it.

Gary shook his head in vehement disapproval. “No no, I’ll pass on that, thanks,” he insisted.

The bartender carried on, returning the fish to its’ tank.

He then proceeded to search the various bottles lined up among the shelves behind him, before settling on a large vile. It was noticeably luminous; radiating an otherworldly turquoise glow.

The bartender shook it up a bit and then poured it into a clean martini glass, presenting the product to Gary.

“Xorm, huh?” he stated, sloshing it around. “Looks pretty glowy!”

Gary got in position, just about to drink, when he hesitated. “This isn’t, perchance, glow stick juice or anything, right? Cause I’m pretty sure that junk would straight-up kill me.”

The bartender shrugged halfheartedly in response. Ice clinked around as Gary raised the glass in toast to no one and to nothing.

“Welp, good enough for me!”

 

* * *

 

 

The folded-up slip of paper brought an unusual warmth to his hand (and by further extension, his cheeks) as he shoved it into a stray compartment in the strap across his chest.

Figuring it had been around forty minutes, Avocato knew he should start looking for his friend amongst the crowd of bar-goers, drinking and laughing and dancing at every turn. It wasn’t like it would be that hard to find the guy, given The Catacomb’s nearly homogenous population.

He realized he had missed this atmosphere. The heart-pounding music, the kinetic energy amongst patrons dancing and having a good time… He had grown accustomed to the lifestyle back in the day, and just a mere taste of it brought the memories flooding back to him. The good kind of memories; ones with little regret.

As much as Avocato hated to admit it, maybe Gary had a good idea in visiting after all.

He skirted the outer-edge of the dance floor and was quick to lay eyes on the back of his human friend’s head. That distinct blonde hair he couldn’t miss anywhere.

A small crowd had gathered around Gary, he noticed with a twinge of interest. They all seemed to be chanting and cheering, but Avocato couldn’t make-out what any of them were saying.

A brilliant greenish-blue glow radiated from Gary’s drink, illuminating his facial features as he brought it closer to his mouth. It was then when Avocato stopped dead in his tracks.

He felt his throat tighten into an irreversible knot as he watched Gary, from a distance, down a martini glass full of what he suspected to be Xorm.

Frantically, he forced his way through the crowd of bar patrons, earning some “hey”s and some “watch it”s. He soon got close enough to make-out the conversations circulating between Gary and his “audience”; particularly, a thinner-looking patron in suspenders and with his fur tied back into a neat bun.

“You know, I’ve only been with a human once...”

He had heard enough of the conversation. Avocato’s hand hooked onto the back of his suspenders, yanking him backwards.

“Hey! What the hell, guy!” he yelped, angrily straightening his straps. Avocato ignored him, setting every ounce of his attention on his friend.

“God dammit, Gary! What are you doing?! You’re going to kill yourself!” he barked, slamming his hand down on the table. Gary’s reaction time had visibly worsened, as it took him quite a few seconds to turn towards him and acknowledge his presence.

“Oh ho... buddy! Avo!” he greeted, seemingly unaware of the severity of his situation.

Avocato was quick to absorb the scene, taking note of several empty glasses collecting in front of him.

“How much have you had, exactly?” he demanded.

Before Gary could half-ass an estimation, the bartender delivered another freshly-poured Xorm and placed it in front of him. Without hesitation, Avocato nabbed the drink and poured out its’ contents into the nearest potted plant.

This seemed to trigger a vocal reaction from the audience Gary had collected.

“Hey man, lay off of him!”

“Buzz off, dude! He paid for that drink fair and square!”

“Yeah, can’t you see the guy’s grieving?!”

Avocato could feel his calm, collected nature diminishing. He was getting angrier and angrier by the minute, and the audience of people watching only seemed to add fuel to the fire.

“Can you people not just… mind your own business?!” Avocato yelled, swatting them away from where Gary sat.

He pointed an accusatory finger at the bartender, who had previously been silently polishing a glass, watching the situation unfold. “-And you! You should know better than to serve a human Xorm!”

“How could I tell they were a human?!” the bartender exclaimed, hands on his hips. “For all I know, they coulda been some sorta mutated gopher species of the Martian variety.”

Avocato rolled his eyes and turned back to look at Gary.

“You’re coming with me, right now,” he stated firmly.

“Nu-uh… I wanna stay here… with my new friends! Look at all my friends I made myself!” Gary gestured drunkenly to the surrounding circle of men, most of which had already acknowledged Avocato’s presence.

Avocato scowled. “These people aren’t your friends, Gary. They’re enablers,” he hissed. “We. Are. _Leaving._ ”

Avocato grabbed Gary by the wrist and pulled him out the door, away from the prying eyes of booing onlookers. At the current pace he was going at, Gary was staggering behind quite badly, but all Avocato cared about was getting out of there as quickly as possible.

Once they reached the docking station, Gary wormed out of Avocato’s grasp and stumbled, landing straight ass-on-the-ground. Avocato pivoted around and crouched over him, attempting to help him back up.

“Gary! We don’t have time-”

Gary slapped his hand away before using his elbows to prop himself up. “So. Even after all of that,” he snapped. “You… you still don’t tell me the truth, _pussycat?_ ”

His fur bristled at the nickname. Before he could demand an explanation, Gary’s drunken rambling continued forward, effectively cutting off his train of thought:

“I thought we were… bros! We did the clasp!” Gary held out his own hands in demonstration, lacing his fingers together repeatedly. “Bros don’t… keep… secrets from each other!”

Avocato blinked, still not following. “What? What are you talking about?” he questioned.

Letting out a strangled laugh, Gary jabbed Avocato’s chest with his index finger.

“You took me… to an intergalactic… cat… gay bar!” he proclaimed, accusatory in tone.

Avocato’s face heated up and his ears lowered as his stance shifted to defensive.

“I… I didn’t want to come in the first place!” he argued, balling his hands into fists. “And you insisted on coming along! You can’t possibly put all of the blame on me!”

Gary attempted to get back up to Avocato’s level but quickly gave up and retreated into fetal position instead. His tirade didn’t seem to be over with yet.

“You… you made out with a guy you had just met and…! Oh, holy crap!” he exclaimed, letting himself fall back down into the dirt again.

_He saw that…?_

Avocato’s angry demeanor faltered for a moment. He wasn’t sure how to approach the situation, from any angle.

He bit his lip. “Gary…”

However, like someone had just flipped a switch, Gary’s manner had shifted completely. “Half a decade,” he murmured. “For half a decade… I’ve been messaging a girl I met at a bar! Do I know her last name…? My crap, I don’t even- And have I heard anything-”  

He paused his tangent to hold down bile rising in his throat.

“- _Back,_ ever?! Nope! Nada! Zilch!”

To see his friend in such a state of desperation was something Avocato was not accustomed to, and something he really, _really_ didn’t like bearing witness to. He knew all the word vomit was because of the Xorm, but part of him suspected that everything he was ranting about came from a place of sincerity… as well as a place of insecurity.

Gary closed his eyes and let out a drawn-out sigh. “Maybe my life would be easier if I didn’t dig chicks so freakin’ hard,” he said.

The statement was open-ended and definitely didn’t help the tense atmosphere lingering between the two of them, but Avocato knew that it would be dangerous to dwell on it.

In a single swoop, Avocato scooped up the drunken captain and carried him in his arms.

“Come on, baby,” he cooed. “We’re heading back to check on your vitals now, okay?”

Gary grumbled something incoherent and probably defensive but didn’t bother to put up a fight.

Stumbling back aboard the Galaxy One, Avocato quickly crossed paths with Mooncake, anxiously floating about. Once he caught sight of the very unconscious Gary in his arms, that anxiety seemed to increase by tenfold.

“He’s probably okay. Just wasted off his ass right now. Don’t worry about him too much,” Avocato assured with false confidence. Mooncake seemed to accept it with a small nod, but still a hint of concern in his expression.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

For fifteen minutes or so, Avocato had studied chart after chart, swiping left on each document to go onto the next.

Human consumption of Xorm wasn’t completely unheard of, but it still wasn’t very common. He had thought it was general knowledge that Xorm was highly toxic to aliens outside of the Ventrexian species ring but then again, Gary wasn’t exactly the most knowledgeable person in the galaxy.

Hell, it took him long enough to even realize he was in a gay bar.

Gary, for possibly the first time in his life, had stayed quiet. He had been drifting in and out of consciousness repeatedly.

Avocato, still absorbing each study he had skimmed, turned to the overhead speakers.

“From the looks of things, he didn’t drink a lethal amount. H.U.E.? Am I right in assuming that?”

 _“It appears that Gary made it through by the skin of his teeth. Just a mere milliliter more could have been enough to shut down his organs,”_ H.U.E. replied.

Avocato let out a shaky breath he didn’t even realize he had been holding. Gary’s trial of silence had been broken, slightly to Avocato’s dismay.

“HA HA! I LIVED!” he cried out, pointing at him. “In your… _fffface_ , Avocato!”

Although relief had overtaken him, some frustration remained below the surface. “...Never, ever do anything that stupid again,” Avocato said.

“Just you try ‘nd stop me, big guy.”

He struggled to get out of the web of sensors suction-cupped to his chest and ribs. Avocato rolled his eyes and pulled them off of the scrambling captain with one tug of his hand and a loud pop.

“...Oh. Thanks, pussycat.”

“Stop calling me that,” he demanded. “...You’re even more infuriating when you’re drunk than when you’re sober, you know that?”

Gary hummed happily in response.

A beat of silence went between the two. A long enough silence for the impact of the situation to finally hit Gary.

“ _OhdearGodIalmostdied.”_

“You should be used to that feeling by now.”

Gary tugged at Avocato’s wrist. “The only reason I’m un-dead is because… of you!”

Curiously, he didn’t pull away from his grasp. “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘alive’,” Avocato corrected. “But yeah. You need to be a lot more careful. I’m not gonna be around all the time to babysit you, y’know.”

Maybe comparing Gary to a child needing looking-after was a little mean, but he had been so irresponsible the entire time they were off the ship! No self-control whatsoever! He needed to be scolded a bit.

“I don’t... deserve you,” Gary moaned. “You… make my life a thousand kajillion times more awesome… just by living here. With me.”

Gary’s robotic hand reached up to stroke the side of Avocato’s face. It felt… surprisingly warm, Avocato noted. His anger towards him had subsided to a simmer at that point, being replaced with a bubbly, nulling sensation. He could place what that sensation was but he didn’t dare admit it to himself.

Gary’s other hand crept to the collar of Avocato’s crop-top, lingering there for what felt like a staggeringly long time. Avocato felt the fur on his neck get uncomfortably hot and stick up on it’s ends.

Why was this frazzling him more than Gary’s sober touchiness? Why did it feel more… intimate?

Against every fiber of his being screaming _not to_ , Avocato let out the tiniest “mew” and began to purr contently. Maybe he was a bit more touch-starved than he cared to admit, and the short episode at the bar hadn’t been enough to quell that.

“Can I have what he’s having?” Gary asked, voice so hoarse it came out barely louder than a whisper.

“What the hell does that even mean?”

Avocato found out, rather immediately, what the hell that meant.

With an impulsive yank to Avocato’s collar, his face was now down to Gary’s level. And Gary’s lips were intertwined with his.

Briefly.

Then again. And again.

It wasn’t a continuous kiss so much as it was a series of peppered ones; each more hot and desperate than the last. Not all of them even landed the designated target of his mouth.

To be perfectly honest, Avocato was caught in such a daze (whether it was from the lingering taste of Xorm that coated Gary’s lips or from being caught off-guard, he wasn’t completely sure) that he couldn’t fully register what was taking place.

Gary… Gary _“so obsessed with just one woman”_ Goodspeed was attempting to make-out with him. Albeit, a very intoxicated, very openly flirty Gary.

He also wasn’t sure whether to chalk up Gary’s neediness as a result of his drunken haze or just to how he was as a lover. Maybe part of him wanted to find out…?

However, the second he came to his senses, he drew back, hands clasped squarely on the other man’s shoulders.

Gary let out an annoyed whine in response. “Why’d ya do that for?”

Mood swings, as what he gathered from skimming the medical warnings page on Xorm, were a common side effect experienced by humans. Sure, maybe not all of it was caused by the drink, but...

“...Gary,” Avocato said sternly, his voice thick with guilt. “You’re drunk. You’re not thinking things through.”

Gary scoffed at the notion. “I am… _COMPLETELY_ sober! A hundred…  percent…”

Trying to plant another one on Avocato’s lips, Gary lurched forward, before clumsily toppling over the side of the gurney. Avocato caught him, eyeing him with a knowing look.

“You are very clearly not,” he stated firmly. Gary’s face fell and he pouted as Avocato placed him back into his position from before.

“But… if you still feel that way in the morning… you know, when you’re able to consent…” He trailed off, inspecting Gary’s expression. It deviated from a pout to something of interest.

“Well… we can talk about it then, I guess,” he finished.

Gary met his gaze. “So that’s… not a no?”

“ _Definitely_ not a no.”

He pumped his fist in the air. “Yes! Victory thy name is Goodspeed!” he cried out. Avocato grinned, feeling that forbidden sensation wash over him once more. But this time, it was readily welcomed.

The two settled into a quiet, sleepy state with Avocato’s head resting on his chest, slowly rumbling back to a deep purr. Gary had placed his hand behind Avocato’s ear. It was almost remarkable the way he was refraining from petting him.

“ _Aaaavoocaaaato?_ ” he asked breathily.

Avocato opened an eye. “Yeah?”

“Can you tell me… more about you? Your past and junk? I do this... thing... where I don’t know what’s okay to ask so I don’t ask anything... but then I don’t know anything about you and it might seem like I’m not interested in learning about you... when that’s _totally_ not the case and-”

“I’ll tell you in the morning, baby,” Avocato interrupted. He knew if he didn’t, Gary would ramble on endlessly without pause. “I promise.”

Gary groaned an exaggerated, whiny kind of groan. “It’s always ‘in the morning, baby’ with you, isn’t it? I’d better wake up to a plate of freakin’... chocolate-chip Mickey Mouse pancakes and some lip-on-lip action tomorrow or I’ll lose my mind…” he grumbled.

Avocato chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. Is all that before or after the crazy-bad hangover you’re gonna get?”

Gary didn’t reply. He had already drifted off to sleep. Feeling himself being lulled by the same temptation yet again, Avocato was reminded of something he needed to do.

He put a finger in his compartment strap, dragging out the slip of paper with the phone number on it he had gotten earlier.

He ripped it into pieces.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not much of a fanfic writer; I mostly stick to drawing. But if you guys are into this I can see myself potentially writing more for Final Space. Thanks for reading!


End file.
